I used to play D&D, then went to Pathfinder. Now the group is wanting to play something that is not "fantasy" and looking for some space adventure. The guy that was running the adventures has been doing so for 4 years now. He is looking for a break however, the other GM is apparently a "Killer GM" as in tpk per encounter, not adventure but every combat. So no one wants him to GM and the rest of the group is, how should I say, want nothing to do with it. I on the other hand want to GM. I want to write my own adventures but having no experience gm'ing or writing adventures (modules or whatever EoTE calls them) I am looking for help. I really need a step by step by step on how to do it because I really have no idea where to start. Don't get me wrong, I have read the DM manuals for D&D along with Pathfinder but I just don't see it. Perhaps it is just me, I like to make sure I am doing things the right way instead of just winging it or being random.

TLDR: So I guess what I am asking for is someone (or the community) to put together an "adventure writing module" along with examples. This is what I do first, this is second, these are the options for this part and why. Something so I can learn to write my own.

Thanks,

J

Writing a first adventure is a daunting task. Luckily there are sever published adventures for EotE to get you started.

From thee think of adventures like stories. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end. A hook to draw the characters in, rising action and development, a climax, falling action and resolution.

Stories are about conflicts, not always combat, but some conflict. Think about the characters' wants and fears. What is stopping them from getting what they want? How does their fear push and drive them? How are they going to get what they want?

Steal! Steal from everywhere. If you see a good episode of some show on TV, read a good book, watch a good movie, or even a bad one, steal from it.

A rogue war droid has been ravaging the casino district. It appears out of nowhere, kills and then disappears again. The playe characters come together, devise a plan to track it, and finally confront and kill it. That is Jaws, slightly rewritten. It could also be Jack the Ripper.

Crime shows like Miami Vice or Law and Order can provide lots of characters and plots to steal. Even adventure modules for other games. Use storm troopers instead of orcs, blasters instead of swords.

The number one thing to work on, in my opinion, is improvisation. No plans survive contact with your Players. Just learn to be adaptable. Think what you would be doing if you didn't see your plot hooks. And when all else fails, just roll with it. I would suggest a nice easy one shot your first time out, dip your toe in so to speak, and then just jump head first into an adventure.

Take a page from the sample adventures and start your adventures "already in progress". Don't let the players ruin all your plans for the evening by not going in the right cantina and starting a fight with the wrong batch of mercenaries. Start with them running for their lives from a bunch of insulted Mandalorians. Chase scenes can be a good way to keep the action flowing without the risks involved in combat. That said, there's another thread on here about how tough it is to actually kill a player character in EotE - captures, rescues and escapes can all provide drama without risking characters lives. Not that character deaths should be off the table completely, but I've always felt they ought to happen at dramatically important points in the story, not because of unlucky dice roles. As gamemaster, it is up to you to decide how to handle that, but it sounds like your players aren't interested in every combat being a fight for their lives. Fortunately, that's what minions are for!

Above all, though, listen to your characters. When they are creating their characters, they'll come up with the Obligations and Motivations for them. Use those! Try to spotlight at least one character's motivation per adventure, and use those motivations to provide the overarching themes for your campaign.

I have been GMing for a long while, but am running my own custom adventure for the first time this Sunday.

I would definitely recommend you start your GMing career by running some pre-made adventures. That will give you quite enough experience and time to think about what you want to do when you make your own.

Having said that, I think it's very important when writing your own adventure to think about the characters who are going to be in it. Write down their Motivations and Obligations, think about their back-stories and how they could all be tied together, keep a record of which skills and Talents they have, and then construct your story around that. This will engage your players in the story they are in immediately, giving them reasons to be invested, and will also give everyone opportunities to shine if you build your encounters around what the party can do.

I think the chapter on GMing in the Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook is a pretty good resource actually.

Here's what I do for star wars:

1. Think of some cool ideas for NPCs: fellow smuggler the PCs have worked with, local crime lord, swoop gang, etc.

2. Go through the adversaries chapter and assign your NPCs stats from the book, So the smuggler friend might be a normal (rival level) smuggler, for example. Some might not be a perfect match; maybe most of the swoop gang are just street toughs.

3. Make up some fun goals for a few of the NPCs, which generally involve hiring, coercing, or tricking the PCs into doing something that benefits them. The rest can be resources the PCs go to in persuit of these goals or whatever the PCs have in mind.

4. Put together some basic encounters for each goal or mission the NPCs have for the PCs. So maybe their smuggler friend wants them to help her pull convoy duty for a few merchants trying to get to a nearby planet. That probably involves a simple encounter where they negotiate with the merchants for the rate they'll charge, so you'll want to look up some stats for merchants and think about what they can afford to pay. It may also involve a climactic attack by some pirates flying Cloakshape fighters launching from a nearby moon when the convoy exits hyperspace, so you'll want to pull up some stats for the ship and pilots and consider how they would respond to negotiation, surrender, or things turning against them.

5. When planning, try to imagine how you would do things as the players and whether the players are being given a "fair chance", i.e. do they have a chance to escape from a superior force, to notice a trap, to take on their foes in combat, to negotiate, etc.

6. During the session, be flexible. If you have an idea of what types of people your NPCs are, you can have them react to whatever the PCs throw at them. Similarly, it's simple enough to invent new locations on the fly, like a seedy cantina teeming with gamblers or a shining spaceport filled with aliens from across the galaxy.

What I've described is basically what I do in my sessions. My games are very open ended and driven by what my players are interested in and how the NPCs in my world interact with them, with plenty of hooks for them to grab hold of and run with.

If all of this seems daunting I would highly suggest getting the Beginner Game box for Edge of the Empire. It has a very well laid out adventure that took my gaming group two sessions to get through. It also eases your group into the EOTE rules very nicely. As a fellow first time GM and long time player I very much appreciated it. Box also comes with a set of dice, worth $15 separately, so really only $15 for the rest of it. My group had a grand time with it. They even rearranged schedules so we could play again in two weeks instead of the usual four.

I'm actually in the same boat as you minus having any Roleplaying Game experience. I never really did any D&D , Pathfinder or any other RPG's minus a somewhat short lived quick run as the GM of the latest D&D red box. But this new system has intrigued me enough to give GMing another shot, not to mention that out of my group It has become expected of me to run our game nights. I have already run most of my group through the Escape From Mos Shuuta adventure from the Beginner game to test their interest and so far they are looking forward to finally sitting down and creating their own characters and getting this ball rolling.

My thoughts on starting as a fresh GM is to start with the familiar Escape from Mos Shuuta adventure that we have already run but modifying it to have something fresh as well giving myself some experience toward creating adventures. Starting off I know we are going to spend the first hour or so creating a character and I am going to create one right along with them. I'll be telling them it is so we can all have interchangeable characters should any one of them should decide to GM a night. But I will actually end up introducing my character in place of Trex and as a recurring Nemesis. Other than that I am only slightly rewriting the story moving things around the map and just making it so they won't know exactly what to do and where to go since they've already done it.

So for myself, I just personally plan on running my group through the few premade adventures already available(here's hoping the release the Free RPG Day adventure on PDF soon) while giving myself an idea of how an adventure runs as well as taking in any input from my group on what they liked/didn't like and hopefully getting some constructive criticism on my role as a GM to help improve.

A couple of further thoughts.

Know your players! What sort of adventures do your players generally like? What sorts of approaches to they take to solving problems? Write adventures in this style that can be solved with that type of problem solving. If they are a group of hammers, write your adventures so the majority of problems are nails.

Know the characters. Look at the character backgrounds, obligations and motivations. These provide excellent hooks to draw them in. If you have a character who hates Duros then have your villain be of that species.

Be willing to shift locations etc in response to the players' actions. If you have an encounter planned for the Red Bantha Cantina and the players go to the Mandalorian's Head instead, just shift the encounter location. Where ever they go, move the adventure there to meet them.

Keep notes on memorable NPCs, locations, and bits of background. It can help the world feel more real if they encounter old friends and enemies repeatedly.

My group has been playing several small adventures and passing the task of GM around so everyone gets a turn. We're all new to RPGs and none of us know what role we'll like the most.

When it comes around to me, I'm going to treat my adventure like a side quest you might find in Knights of the Old Republic or SW Galaxies (Pre-CU of course ). It seems easier for me to think of it like that. I'm not sure if this is a good plan of attack but it makes it more tangible in my mind.

As mentioned before, steal. From anywhere. Also don't forget to add the environment in as a variable to mix things up from time to time. Even the biggest hammer will eventually tire of pounding nails, so try putting some thin layer of difficulty in between him and his nail. Put him in an encounter with dim lights that twitch out, and tight corridors that restrict movement (Alien). Have him outrun a cave-in, and pursue his target through a forest (Raiders of the Lost Ark). Make it so he needs to deal with a bully to get back to the year 1985 BBY (Back to the Future, ok, maybe that's a bit ridiculous).

Dont feel like you have to be tied to the star wars cannon either. Your games can have a star wars feel and contain new and original places, NPCs, and species. It's a vast universe and really anything goes. I do try to tie it in with the basic factions though if needed. Criminal underground, Imperials, Rebels, etc...What is each factions involvement and why.

Usually coming up with a unique idea for a location or npc can give you enough to go on, but if not then try adding something to the scene to make it unique. Low or heavy gravity, multiple level platforms, heights with wires or pipes that need to be crossed, droids that need to be saved and escorted, a crowded marketplace, etc...Just using a single little idea bit like one of these can give you, as a GM, an entire encounter. Now tie those together in your overarching story line. Really all you need here is have a goal and a location, maybe an NPC too and then all of a sudden you have a scene. That plays out and it naturally leads to another.

Might this help you? http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/86697-my-top-10-ish-tips-on-coming-up-with-game-ideas/

this might help too... http://www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=Situation_Generator